How to stay motivated for a long period of time ?

When we start to work with Krissy on the #inspiringhealthchallenge, we thought to start with a post about motivation. I started to make some research in human science, in psychology. That should be easy, it’s my subject of study, I told myself. Well… I felt really blocked !

I decided to go more personal and less professional.

So here I go ! As you may have read here, I started my healthychoices journey a long time ago when my daughter was ill. At first, the main reason was health and taking back control of something into my life. For 7 years now, I can say that I went through several phases. At first I was like the dictator of healthy food. I was scanning every piece of food that came into my house and had a hard time eating outside. I make my family becoming almost vegetarian. (Not by choice or by taste but with all the anxiety of a crazy mum haha !) If you ask, I can tell you what I managed to make them eat 😉 The main problem was about the sweet desserts. Because it was quite easy to quit butter, cream and meat and find a swap for them, but it wasn’t so easy to swap the ingredients for gluten free cakes and so on. I tried some recipes, oh yes I tried ! The bread was a big issue also. Especially for my husband. Briefly : we were dairy free, gluten free, meatless and not having much fun because of me ! I know some people has to have that kind of diet, but we needn’t to be so extreme in our pantry and fridge because there were no allergy and no vital issues.

After that crazy anxious control freaking period (and my kid being finished with her treatment), I became more and more flexible. First we stopped the gluten free diet. Husband was so happy to eat his baguette again !! After, I accepted to eat not totally « healthy » food in restaurants. Years later, I was pregnant with gingerboy and craving for cakes, french bakery is so tempting ! With 2 kids, I had 6 first months really hard and our food was not really good because I couldn’t cook, I was too tired ! By this time, take away pizzas, cakes from the local bakery and frozen veggies were daily treats at home.

When I was back on my feet, totally organised with the 2 kids and never running after time (feel the irony there ?), I decided to pass a degree in french bakery. First I was curious, second, I really wanted to learn the basics to change the recipes in a healthier-less-sweet way. That experience was really great. I met my favorite bakery teacher and was amazed to pass this exam with 16 years kids ! I was also amazed to realize all the bad industrial products that those kids were learning to use. (I worked alone in my kitchen, with my teacher sometimes but with regular products like butter, sugar…) In the school, they were using a lot of chemicals or industrial products that of course save costs. Because they were meant to be productive bakers in shops !

Now my bakery recipes are less sweet than the usual ones, they are more fruity and I know what kind of good products I could use, compared to regular bakery.

I can see you reading this and say, omg where is she going, telling about her life, so boooooring. Yes true, I was trying to talk about motivation. What I meant by telling my story, is that living-eating-healthy is a long journey and in some period of our lives we just can’t do it and that’s ok. When I was blaming myself eating a piece of white bread, that was nonsense ! Now, I think I have found a balance food philosophy. Healthy is good, healthy is always the best. But if we eat some comfort-junk-sweet food occasionally, there is no problem with that !

My doctor who is now a retired doctor and a friend, studied nutrition for several years. He follows a very healthy diet but is always ok to taste and even to have more of my cakes or chocolates, or pies ! And you know what he says ? When you eat something with pleasure and friends, it’s never a bad for your body ! Haha ! (Of course that works because it’s on special occasions !)

Our #inspiringhealthchallenge will be about eating better.

If you think about it as a restrictive diet, motivation will leave you very quickly.

It’s about inspiring small healthy changes that might become habits.

You won’t need motivation anymore when the small changes will have become habits.

Think about it as a quality of life winner, not as a restrictive pleasure diet.

At first, it’s all about your decision but if you try one challenge and decide you can’t do another, it’s ok ! Just be kind to yourself ! We’ll be there to support each other and answer the questions.

Of course. That’s it. Our food philosophy is about that. Try to find a good balance that suits you and trying to healthify some of the products. Some are quite easy to do and other more difficult… xx cathy

I think you’re right, it’s not about a diet it’s about a healthy lifestyle and making good choices. I’ve loved reading more of your story (and practising my French) and am so excited for your challenge! So inspiring! x